According to counsellors at the Cuan Mhuire treatment centre for women, addiction to crack cocaine was unheard of until recent times.

The HSE has defended using children in sting operations to catch retailers who are selling alcohol to underage customers.

The Director of Public Health for the south of Ireland has said future alcohol laws should look to restrict the number of new licenced premises in problem drinking areas.

A man who found sensitive patient data on a city centre street and who highlighted his concerns in the media has been accused by the HSE of a data breach.

Documents with sensitive patient data identifying children and adults, details of surgical procedures, and reasons for missing appointments have been found on a busy city-centre street in Cork.

HSE officials will be asked to explain why a county councillor had to wait three hours for an ambulance and why its crew then spent a further two and a half hours outside a Cork hospital before they were given back the trolley on which she had been lying.

A giant vegetable chilli made from food grown in community gardens across Cork city will be rustled up this weekend as part of a special food festival.

A rehab charity has called on Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy to intervene to help open a stepdown facility which has been lying idle for a decade.

People suffering from poor vision because of cataracts are waiting on public lists so long they are in danger of going blind, it has been claimed.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has expressed concern after figures showed a rise in meningococcal disease in Cork and Kerry.

The funeral took place in Cahir, Co Tipperary, yesterday of a 20-year-old student who died suddenly of meningitis.

An audit has found that children in foster care could possibly be identified because of “insufficient safeguards” in the overall payment process.

Support staff in the health service and emergency department workers are to be balloted on strike action by Siptu.

The spotlight will be thrown on Ireland's suicide crisis tomorrow when communities rocked by a spate of suicides unite for a special vigil to remember those who died, and to offer support and advice to those left behind.

Grandmother Christine O’Shea would have been completely paralysed within a few months if her family had not paid for her to have a private MRI scan.

A helipad could be operational at Cork University Hospital by December 2017.

A public health warning has been issued after it was confirmed an adult with measles visited a number of locations in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, and in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, in recent weeks.

One in four deaths of young men aged from 15 to 39 in Ireland is due to alcohol and drink is a factor in half of all suicides, according to the Health Research Board.

Anabolic steroids, increasingly popular among young males to obtain a pumped-up physique, accounted for more than half of the 60,000 counterfeit units of medicine seized in a single week by Irish enforcement agencies in partnership with the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA).

Gardening is a great pursuit to help all aspects of health, not just in terms of aerobic fitness but also mental health. 

The planned opening of a €2m, high-observation psychiatric unit — which has remained closed since last December, due to staff shortages — has again been postponed, a nurses’ union has claimed.

Heroin addicts, their friends, and immediate relations are to be provided with a series of measures, including an antidote to the Class A drug, in an effort to prevent deaths from overdosing.

Nearly 90 people have died from heroin and other opiates in Cork City in the past 11 years, according to coroner Myra Cullinane.

At least 13,700 drug users are availing of needle exchange services, according to the first study of its type in the country.

Cork had the highest number of days last year when the sun was strong enough to cause skin damage and increase the risk of skin cancer.

A mental health nurse who went public with his concerns about a new psychiatric unit has been suspended indefinitely.

Cork City Council is awaiting further information from developers of the proposed reworking for residential use of a former bakery site in Togher.

Cute rescue puppies took the lead at a special stress-busting session for college students just weeks ahead of their end-of-year exams.

8.30am

Dozens of staff and students at University College Cork have each shed an average 1.5kg in weight as part of a campus-wide health drive.

The 10 hospitals in the south/south west hospital group will have to collectively generate €3 million every week this year in order to break even by the end of 2015.

The HSE South continues to pay taxis and couriers to transport blood samples, breast milk and human tissue even though a motorcycle charity has been lobbying for almost a year to provide the service free of charge.

A charity which provides services to people with an intellectual disability has tightened its internal procedures after a staff member admitted misappropriating over €12,000 in HSE funds.

The double tragedy in Cork at the weekend highlights the lonely and troubled existence of those living on the margins, the head of Cork Simon has said.

Emergency accommodation for the homeless in Cork is to get a cash injection which should mean no-one sleeping rough on the city’s streets by Christmas.

The HSE has been investigating two serious claims of physical abuse against adults and foster children with intellectual disabilities in the south-east since 2012 — but has failed to publish any reports on the matter.

8am

Rats, mice, ants, fleas, and silverfish were among the infestations found in hospitals during the past five years, as the HSE spent more than €800,000 on pest-control services.